In photography, the color of objects in a photographic image is determined by the intrinsic color of the photographed object and the color of the light or lights that illuminated the object. Lights that illuminate an object are tinted by reflecting off of colored items or passing through a medium that filters out other colors. Photographing things underwater usually results in an overall tinted (often bluish or greenish tint) illumination. The amount of light filtered out, and the colors of the light that are filtered out depend on the depth and the contents of the water (e.g., murky, salt, fresh, etc.). Accordingly, objects that are lit by light passing through water appear incorrectly tinted, while the water itself appears correctly tinted (e.g., tinted the color of water).
One type of photographic editing, called “color balancing” or “white balancing” attempts to remove some or all of the effects of the specific light color on the photographed object (e.g., to remove a green or blue tint of a photographed person when the person was illuminated by green or light, such as the light underwater). Various image editing programs apply white balancing techniques to remove the effects of tinted light on an image. Without applying a color balancing technique, the colors of items in the water (e.g., people's skin) are tinted by the color of the light that filters through the water. However, when previous color balancing techniques are applied to an image taken underwater, or taken of an underwater scene from above the water, the color corrections result in images that do not look as though they were taken underwater. The previous color balancing techniques do not preserve the color of the water.